The Red Baron

The Red Baron (also known by its original German title, Der Rote Baron) is a 2008 German-British biographical action war film written and directed by Nikolai Müllerschön about the World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as the "Red Baron". The film stars Matthias Schweighöfer, Joseph Fiennes, Til Schweiger and Lena Headey. The Red Baron was filmed entirely in English to improve its international commercial viability. Plot In 1916, Manfred von Richthofen is serving as a fighter pilot with the Imperial German Air Service along the Western Front. After dropping a wreath over the funeral of an Allied pilot, Richthofen and his fellow pilots Werner Voss and Friedrich Sternberg encounter a squadron of the Royal Flying Corps led by Captain Lanoe Hawker. Richthofen shoots down Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown. After pulling Brown out of the wreckage of his aircraft, Richthofen assists Nurse Käte Otersdorf with a tourniquet on Brown's leg. After killing Hawker, Richthofen is awarded the Pour le Mérite medal and promoted to command a squadron. He is joined by his brother Lothar von Richthofen (Volker Bruch). He orders his men to avoid killing enemy pilots unless absolutely necessary and is dismayed when Lothar deliberately strafes and kills a British pilot who has already been forced into a landing. Later, during an aerial dogfight, Richthofen again encounters Captain Brown, who has escaped from a German prisoner of war camp after being nursed by Käte. Both are forced to ditch their aircraft in no man's land, where they share a friendly drink. Brown expresses hope that they will not meet again until after the war is over, and he tells Richthofen that Käte has feelings for him.